FAYETTEVILLE -- A man who wielded a machete to rob a Fayetteville taxi driver last year pleaded guilty Friday to being an accomplice to aggravated robbery in Washington County Circuit Court.
Javaughntaiye Jamar Willis, 22, was sentenced to 15 years at the Arkansas Department of Correction with five years suspended. He was given credit for 191 days of jail time served.
Legal Lingo
Aggravated Robbery
The taking of money or goods in the possession of another, from his or her person or immediate presence, by force or intimidation.
Source: The Free Legal Dictionary
Willis and two other men, Alberto Delatorre Jr., 18, of Springdale and Marco Alverez-Guzman, 18, of Fayetteville, were charged with aggravated robbery and theft of property in the case.
Fayetteville police investigated the robbery at 2:52 a.m. July 19, 2013, in the area of Betty Jo and Wedington drives.
Dominic Greetan, a driver for NWA Taxi, dropped off a customer at a home on Betty Jo and pulled over to do paperwork and smoke when three men approached him. Two asked for a cigarette while one slipped up behind Greetan, held a machete to his throat and threatened to kill him if he didn't give them money.
Greetan said he gave the men his money bag, which had about $190 in it. They also took his cellphone, wallet and cigarettes.
Delatorre and Alverez-Guzman were identified as the men who distracted Greetan while Willis brandished the machete, according to police and witnesses.
Detectives found the money and the machete along with the taxi driver's wallet, cellphone and a receipt with his name on it in a nearby duplex, along with the Delatorre, Alverez-Guzman and Willis.
Delatorre was found guilty at trial and was sentenced to 10 years at the Department of Correction on the robbery charge and fined $250 on the theft charge.
Alverez-Guzman, 18, pleaded guilty to robbery in Washington County Circuit Court last year. Alverez-Guzman was charged as an adult and sentenced to 20 years with three years suspended. He was given credit for 126 days jail time served.
Willis also is charged, along with J'Donta Britt, 18, with accomplice to rape, related to the assault of a detainee at the Washington County jail while Willis was awaiting trial on the robbery charge. That case is set for trial Nov. 4-6.
The two raped and tortured another inmate "off and on" during a 16-hour time frame in a cell at the jail, according to a police report.
Willis faces an additional battery charge related to a separate incident at the jail but doesn't have a court date on that charge.
In 2011, Willis was sentenced to three years in the Washington County jail and three years of probation after investigators said he shot his grandmother's dog. Willis entered a plea bargain with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to felony animal cruelty and first-degree terroristic threatening.
NW News on 07/26/2014